Running identical Cucumber steps with both Selenium and a headless browser

Other Questions Headless Browser
1

I’m working on web app testing using Cucumber. Right now I’ve got a bunch of steps set up for Culerity. It’s great but sometimes I wish I could run the same stories in Selenium too.

I’m thinking about two ways to do this:

  1. Make each step smart enough to work differently based on some global setting.
  2. Have two sets of step files and find a way to use the right one when needed.

Which way is better? Or is there another approach I’m missing?

I’m pretty new to this so any advice would be awesome. Thanks!

2

Having worked on similar testing setups, I’d recommend going with option 1 - making your steps adaptable based on a global setting. This approach has served me well in the past.

Here’s why: It keeps your codebase DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) and makes maintenance much easier. You’re not duplicating step definitions, just adjusting behavior.

In practice, I’ve used environment variables to toggle between Selenium and headless modes. Something like:

if ENV['HEADLESS']
  # Headless browser logic
else
  # Selenium logic
end

This way, you can easily switch between modes by setting an environment variable when running your tests. It’s clean, flexible, and scales well as your test suite grows.

Just remember to thoroughly test both paths to ensure consistency across browsers. Good luck with your testing journey!

3

hey, have u considered using a wrapper around yr browser interactions? like create a custom Browser class that handles both selenium and headless stuff. then ur steps just use that class, and u switch modes with a config flag. keeps things clean n flexible imo

4

From my experience, I’d suggest a hybrid approach. Create a base class for your step definitions that includes common functionality. Then, create separate Selenium and headless browser subclasses that inherit from this base.

This way, you maintain a single set of core steps while allowing for browser-specific implementations where needed. You can use a factory pattern to instantiate the appropriate class based on a configuration setting.

This approach offers flexibility and keeps your code organized. It’s particularly useful as your test suite grows and you potentially add more browser types in the future.

Remember to thoroughly test all browser configurations to ensure consistent behavior across your entire test suite.